lished  by  The  American  Iron  and  Steel  Association,  at  No.  265  South 
bvrth  Street , Philadelphia,  at  which  place  copies  of,  phis,  trpct  -m'ay.be  had  on 

.'nniiratinn  hii  letter.  . ■ > 1 ' . 


THE  REVIVAL. 


lFTER  five  years  of  depression  the  morning  DAWNS — OUR  EXPORTS 
ARE  INCREASING  AND  OUR  IMPORTS  ARE  DECREASING— OUR  DEBT  TO 
EUROPE  IS  BEING  RAPIDLY  PAID— THE  HOME  MARKET  HAS  BEEN  KEPT 
BY  A PROTECTIVE  TARIFF  FOR  THE  HOME  PRODUCER— THE  COST  OF 
LIVING  NEVER  SO  LOW  AS  NOW — OUR  CROPS  NEVER  SO  ABUNDANT  AS 
THEY  ARE  THIS  YEAR— THE  RAILROADS  FULLY  EMPLOYED— GENERAL 
BUSINESS  SURELY  REVIVING— THE  GREENBACK  AS  GOOD  AS  GOLD— BET- 
TER DAYS  NEAR  AT  HAND. 


FREE  TRADE  A FAILURE  IN  ITS  OWN  HOME— ENGLAND  LOOKING  TO  THIS 
COUNTRY  FOR  RELIEF  FROM  THE  DEPRESSION  FROM  WHICH  FREE  TRADE 
HAS  FAILED  TO  SAVE  HER— SHALL  WE  NOW  SURRENDER  OUR  PROTEC- 
TIVE TARIFF,  WHICH  HAS  SAVED  OUR  INDUSTRIES  FROM  DESTRUCTION,. 
THAT  ENGLISH  MANUFACTURERS  MAY  AGAIN  BECOME  PROSPEROUS?— 
A QUESTION  FOR  AMERICAN  WORKINGMEN  TO  ANSWER— CANADA  JOINS 
HANDS  WITH  US  IN  SUPPORT  OF  PROTECTION. 


REASONS  FOR  THE  BELIEF  THAT  NATIONAL  PROS- 
PERITY IS  RETURNING. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  SPEECH  OF  PRESIDENT  HAYES  AT  ST.  PAUL, 
SEPTEMBER  5,  1878. 

The  most  interesting  questions  in  public  affairs  which  now  engage 
the  attention  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  those  which  re- 
late to  the  financial  condition  of  the  country.  Since  the  financial 
panic  and  collapse  five  years  ago,  capital  and  labor  and  business 
capacity  have  found  it  hard  to  get  profitable  employment.  We 
have  had  what  is  commonly  and  properly  known  as  hard  times. 
In  such  times  men  naturally  ask,  What  can  be  done  ? How  long 
is  this  stagnation  of  business  to  last  ? Are  there  any  facts  which 
indicate  an  early  return  to  better  times  ? I wish  to  ask  your  atten- 
tion for  a few  minutes  while  I present  some  facts  and  figures  which 
show  a progressive  improvement  in  the  financial  condition  of  the 


THE  PUBLIC  DEBT  REDUCED. 


• I*  * • t # • * t*  * * ' 

general  gov6i*nment..*.  *It  wjll  be  for  you  to  consider  what  inferem  ;es 
maylfai^ty  b£*(frawn  a§  .to  their  bearing  on  the  question  of  a revh 
of  business  prosperity  th/flfighbut  the  country. 


al 


* *'  *V  • ; PUBLIC  DEBT  REDUCED. 

* • ♦ * • • 

The  financial  condition  of  the  government  of  the  United  Stages 
is  shown  by  its  debt,  its  receipts  and  expenditures,  the  currency,  arid 
the  state  of  trade  with  foreign  countries.  Let  us  consider  the  pres- 
ent state  of  the  public  debt.  The  ascertained  debt  reached  its  high- 
est point  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  in  August,  1865,  an  cl 
amounted  to  $2,757,689,571.43.  In  addition  to  this,  it  was  estima- 
ted that  there  were  enough  unadjusted  claims  against  the  govern- 
ment of  unquestioned  validity  to  swell  the  total  debt  to  $3,000,000,- 
000.  How  to  deal  with  this  great  burden  was  one  of  the  gravest 
questions  which  pressed  for  decision  as  a result  of  the  war. 

And  now  I give  you  the  results.  The  debt  has  been  reduced  un- 
til now  it  is  only  $2,035,580,324.85.  This  is  a reduction,  as  com- 
pared with  the  ascertained  debt  thirteen  years  ago,  of  $722,109,- 
246.58.  More  than  one-fourth  of  the  debt  has  been  paid  off  in 
thirteen  years.  If  we  compare  the  present  debt  with  the  actual 
debt  thirteen  years  ago — placing  the  actual  debt  at  $3,000,000,- 
000 — the  reduction  amounts  to  about  $1,000,000,000,  or  one-third 
of  the  total  debt.  Thus  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  United 
States  can  and  will  pay  the  national  debt. 


THE  ANNUAL  INTEREST  REDUCED. 

Encouraging  as  are  these  facts,  they  do  not  fully  show  the  prog- 
ress made  in  relieving  the  country  from  the  burden  of  its  war 
debt.  All  who  have  to  borrow  money  to  carry  debts  know  the  im- 
portance of  the  question  of  interest.  The  total  amount  of  interest- 
bearing  debt  at  the  time  it  reached  its  highest  point,  the  31st  of 
August,  1865,  was  as  follows : — 


Four  per  cent,  bonds $618,127  98 

Five  per  cent,  bonds 269,175,727  65 

Six  per  cent,  bonds 1,064,712,279  33 

7 3-10  United  States  notes 830,000,000  00 

Compound-interest  notes,  6 per  cent 217,024,160  00 


Total  interest-bearing  debt $2,381,530,294  96 

The  total  annual  interest  charge  amounted  to 150,977,697  84 


THE  PUBLIC  DEBT  NOW  HELD  AT  HOME. 


3 


This  was  an  oppressive  burden.  For  interest  alone  we  were  pay- 
ing more  than  double  the  total  current  expenses  of  the  government 
in  any  year  of  peace  prior  to  the  war  for  the  Union. 

It  was 'seen  that  the  successful  management  of  the  debt  depended 
on  the  rates  of  interest  to  be  paid ; that  a reduction  of  one  per  cent, 
on  our  whole  interest-bearing  debt  would  be  a yearly  saving  in  in- 
terest of  over  $20,000,000 ; that  a reduction  of  two  per  cent,  in  the 
rate  of  interest  would  save  to  the  country  over  $40,000,000,  which 
is  the  interest  at  four  per  cent,  on  $1,000,000,000. 

The  policy,  of  reducing  the  debt  and  thereby  strengthening  the 
public  credit  having  been  adopted,  let  us  observe  the  result  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  public  debt  with  respect  to  interest.  The 
total  interest-bearing  debt,  August  1,  1878,  was  as  follows  : — 

Three  per  cent.  Navy  Pension  Fund $14,000,000 

Four  per  cent,  bonds 112,850,000 

Four  and  a half  per  cents 246,000,000 

Five  per  cents 703,266,650 

Six  per  cents 733,561,250 

Total  present  interest-bearing  debt $1,809,677,900 

The  interest  on  which  amounts  to  the  sum  of  $95,181,007.50  per 
annum.  It  thus  appears  that  in  thirteen  years  the  interest-bearing 
debt  has  been  reduced  from  $2,381,530,294.96  to  $1,809,677,900  ; a 
gain  in  the  amount  of  the  interest-bearing  debt  of  $571,852,394.96. 
The  reduction  of  the  annual  interest  charge  is  $55,796,690.34,  or 
more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  what  we  now  pay.  If  the  reduction  of 
annual  interest  were  placed  in  a sinking  fund  at  four  per  cent,  in- 
terest, it  would  pay  off  the  whole  debt  in  less  than  twenty-five  years. 


THE  PUBLIC  DEBT  NOW  HELD  AT  HOME.' 


There  has  been  another  gratifying  and  important  improvement  in 
the  state  of  the  public  debt.  A few  years  ago  our  bonds  were  large- 
ly owned  in  foreign  countries.  It  is  estimated  that  in  1871  from 
$800,000,000  to  $1,000,000,000  were  held  abroad.  We  then  paid 
from  $50,000,000  to  $60,000,000  annually  to  Europe  for  interest 
alone.  Now  the  bonds  are  mainly  held  in  our  own  country.  It  is 
estimated  that  five-sixths  of  them  are  held  in  the  United  States,  and 
only  one-sixth  abroad.  Instead  of  paying  to  foreigners  $50,000,000, 
we  now  pay  them  only  about  $12,000,000  or  $15,000,000  a year,  and 
the  interest  on  the  debt  is  mainly  paid  to  our  own  citizens.  It  ap- 
pears from  what  has  been  shown  that  since  the  close  of  the  war,  since 


4 TAXATION  AND  GOVERNMENT  EXPENDITURES  REDUCED. 


the  panic  of  five  years  ago,  there  has  been  a great  change  in  the 
condition  of  the  debt.  The  change  has  been  one  of  improvement. 

1.  The  debt  has  been  greatly  reduced. 

2.  The  interest  to  be  paid  has  been  largely  diminished. 

3.  And  it  is  to  be  paid  at  home  instead  of  abroad. 

THE  BURDEN  OF  TAXATION  LESSENED. 

The  burden  of  taxation  has  been  reduced  since  1866,  the  first  year 
after  the  war,  as  follows : The  taxes  in  1866  were : 

Customs $179,046,651  58 

Internal  revenue 309,226,813  42 

$488,273,465  00 

The  taxes  in  1878  were: 

Customs  $130,170,680  20 

Internal  revenue 110,581,624  74 

240,752,304  94 

Reduction  of  taxes  since  1866 $247,521,160  06 


TAXATION  THE  YEAR  OF  THE  PANIC. 


1873— Customs $188,089,522  70 

Internal  revenue 113,729,314  14 

Total $301,818,836  84 

1878 240,752,304  94 

Reduction  since  the  panic $61,066,531  90 


EXPENDITURES  REDUCED. 

The  expenditures  have  been  reduced  since  the  war  as  follows : 


1867 — Expenditures,  including  pensions  and  interest $357,542,675  16 

1878  236,964,326  80 

Reduction  of  yearly  expenses $120,578,348  36 

% 

EXPENDITURES  THE  YEAR  OF  THE  PANIC. 

1873 $290,345,245  33 

1878 236,964,326  80 

Reduction  in  five  years $53,380,918  53 


OUR  FOREIGN  TRADE  IMPROVED  BY  THE  POLICY  OF  PROTECTING 
HOME  INDUSTRY. 

Nothing  connected  with  the  financial  affairs  of  the  government  is 
more  interesting  and  instructive  than  the  state  of  trade  with  foreign 


OUR  FOREIGN  TRADE  GREATLY  IMPROVED. 


5 


countries.  The  exports  from  the  United  States  during  the  year  end- 
ing June  30, 1878,  were  larger  than  during  any  previous  year  in  the 
history  of  the  country.  From  the  year  1863  to  the  year  1873  the 
net  imports  into  the  UnitedjStates  largely  exceeded  the  exports  from 
the  United  States — the  excess  of  imports  ranging  from  $39,000,000 
to  $182,000,000  annually.  During  the  years  1874  and  1875  the 
exports  and  imports  were  about  equal.  During  the  years  ending 
June  30,  1876,  1877,  1878,  however,  the  domestic  exports  from  the 
United  States  greatly  exceeded  the  net  imports,  the  excess  of  exports 
increasing  rapidly  from  year  to  year.  This  is  shown  as  follows : 


Year  ending  June  30.  Excess  of  exports  over  net  imports. 


1876  $79,643,481 

1877  •. 151,152,094 

1878  257,786,964 


Total  excess  of  exports  over  imports  in  three  years $488,582,539 


The  total  value  of  exports  from  the  United  States  increased  from 
$269,389,900  in  1868  to  $680,683,798  in  1878 — an  increase  of 
$411,293,898,  or  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  per  cent. 

The  following  table  shows  the  principal  commodities  the  exporta- 
tion of  which  has  greatly  increased  during  the  last  ten  years  : 


COMMODITIES. 

Year  ending  June  30. 

Increase. 

1868. 

1878. 

Agricultural  implements 

$673,381 

$2,575,198 

$1,901,817 

Animals,  living 

733,395 

5, 844, 653 

5,111,258 

Bread  and  breadstuffs 

68,980,997 

181,774,507 

112,793,510 

Manufactures  of  iron  and  steel.... 

6,389,429 

12,084,048 

5,694,619 

Coal 

1,516,220 

2,359,467 

843,247 

Copper  and  brass,  and  manufac- 
tures of. 

939,250 

3,078,349 

2,139,099 

Manufactures  of  cotton 

4,871,054 

11,435,628 

6,564,574 

Fruit 

406,512 

1,376,969 

970,457 

Leather,  and  manufactures  of..... 

1,414,372 

8,077,659 

6,663,287 

Oilcake 

2,913,448 

5,095,163 

2,181,715 

Coal  oil  and  petroleum 

21,810,676 

46,574,974 

24,764,298 

Provisions 

30,278,253 

123,549,986 

93,271,733 

Total 

$140,926,987 

$403,826,601 

$262,899,614 

The  total  increase  in  the  value  of  agricultural  products  exported 
from  the  United  States  in  the  year  1878  over  the  exports  of  the  year 
ending  June  30,  1868,  amounts  to  $273,471,282,  or  86  per  cent. 


6 


THE  BALANCE  OF  TRADE  LARGELY  IN  OUR  FAVOR. 


This  is  shown  as  follows.  Domestic  exports  of  agricultural  products 
during  the  year  ending  June  30  : 


1878 . $592,475,813 

1868 319,004,531 

Increase $273,471,282 

Percentage  of  increase 86  per  cent. 


THE  BALANCE  OF  TRADE  NOW  LARGELY  IN  OUR  FAVOR. 

The  balance  of  trade  against  the  United  States  in  the  five  years 
next  before  the  panic  was  as  follows : 


1869  $131,388,682 

1870  43,186,640 

1871  77,403,506 

1872  182,417,491 

1873' 119,656,288 


Total  in  five  years $554,052,607 


or  an  average  of  over  $110,000,000  a year. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  balance  of  trade  in  the  last  three 
years  in  favor  of  the  United  States  is  $488,582,539,  or  an  average 
of  more  than  $160,000,000  a year.  The  balance  of  trade  the  last 
year,  if  compared  with  that  of  the  two  years  next  before  the  panic, 
shows  a gain  in  favor  of  the  United  States,  in  one  year,  of  over 
$400,000,000. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  I should  dwell  upon  the  importance  of  this 
favorable  state  of  the  balance  of  trade.  With  diminished  and  still 
diminishing  public  burdens  of  debt,  expenditures  and  interest,  with 
an  improved  condition  of  currency  and  foreign  trade,  we  may  well 
hope  that  we  are  on  the  threshold  of  better  times. 


Before  the  crash  of  1873  we  imported  $16,000,000  worth  of 
foreign  rails  in  one  year,  and  in  1877  we  imported  less  than  a $1000 
worth.  In  1872  we  imported  foreign  carpets  to  the  value  of  $6,- 
000,000,  and  in  1877  the  trade  had  ceased.  The  question  is  no 
longer  can  Uncle  Sam  compete,  but  can  Europe  compete  with  him? 
So  much  for  a steady  persistence  in  the  protective  policy  of  our 
fathers.  We  now  employ  our  own  people  in  producing  what  we 
formerly  imported,  and  the  cost  of  the  articles  they  produce  has 
been  greatly  reduced  to  consumers. 


THE  FLOW  OF  GOLD  TO  EUROPE  HAS  CEASED. 


7 


Why  has  Gold  Ceased  to  Flow  from  this  Country? — The 
heavy  excess  of  our  exports  over  our  imports  has  completely  stop- 
ped the  flow  of  gold  from  this  country  to  Europe,  and  brought  back 
our  bonds  in  such  amounts  that  less  than  20  per  cent,  of  the  govern- 
ment bonded  debt  is  now  held  abroad.  This  has  caused  such  a dis- 
turbance of  the  European  market  as  to  create  considerable  alarm. 
A London  special  dispatch  says : “ The  advance  of  the  rate  of  dis- 
count by  the  Bank  of  Germany  to  5 per  cent,  is  regarded  as  another 
evidence  of  the  grave  disturbance  in  the  monetary  affairs  of  Europe 
which  is  to  be  apprehended  in  consequence  of  the  complete  cessation 
of  the  supply  of  gold  from  the  United  States,  and  the  strong  proba- 
bility that  the  latter  in  the  future  will  draw  gold  in  large  quantities 
from  Europe.  The  Bank  of  England  has  sought  to  check  this  out- 
flow of  gold  by  advancing  its  rate  to  five.  Germany  now  follows 
by  an  advance  to  five,  and  a further  advance  by  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land is  predicted.  The  supply  of  gold  outside  the  amount  hitherto 
received  from  America  will  not  be  sufficient  to  make  up  the  annual 
wastage  of  the  precious  metals  by  handling  and  their  consumption  in 
the  arts,  and  an  era  of  dear  and  scarce  money  is  apprehended.”  This 
is  better  for  us  than  a steady  drain  of  coin  to  pay  a oreign  indebt- 
edness, and  nothing  could  more  completely  indicate  the  wisdom  of 
protection  to  domestic  industry  which  has  rendered  this  change  in 
the  course  of  the  nation’s  foreign  trade  possible. — N.  Y.  Iron  Age. 


Good  Results  from  our  Increased  Export  Trade. — The 
following  item  is  taken  from  the  Liverpool  Post  of  recent  date. 

There  is  much  comment  in  commercial  circles  upon  the  decrease  of  the 
exports  from  Great  Britain  to  the  United  States,  and  the  great  increase  of  the 
American  export  trade.  The  figures  of  the  last  fiscal  year  show  an  increase 
of  $92,500,000  in  the  exports  from  the  States  and  a diminution  of  $74,250,000 
in  the  imports.  It  is  expected  that  one  result  of  this  will  be  an  early  and 
large  demand  for  gold  for  America,  which  may  materially  affect  the  rate  of 
discount.  Last  year  the  requirements  of  America  were  met  by  means  of 
United  States  five-twenty  bonds,  but  these,  it  is  understood,  have  nearly  all 
been  absorbed,  and  nothing  but  our  gold  will  now  satisfy  Uncle  Sam. 


English  Views  of  American  Exports. — We  take  the  follow- 
ing from  the  London  Mercantile  Shipping  Register : 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  in  the  outcry  that  is  being  raised  about  the 
decline  of  the  English  trade,  and  the  disastrous  effect  of  protective  duties  abroad 


8 


THE  COUNTRY  NOT  SO  POOR  AFTER  ALL. 


and  labor  disputes  at  home,  so  little  has  been  said  about  the  extremely  rapid 
growth  of  the  American  export  trade.  We  hear  plenty  about  the  prohibitive  du- 
ties of  Russia,  and  the  iron  works  of  Belgium — which  latter  indeed  are  formid- 
able rivals,  as  is  proved  by  the  immense  quantity  of  their  manufactures  which 
has  lately  been  used  in  England,  notably  at  the  Natural  History  Museum  at 
South  Kensington,  perhaps  the  largest  architectural  work  on  which  we  are  now 
employed — but  comparatively  little  about  the  most  important  of  all  causes  which 
threaten  to  curtail  our  ancient  commercial  monopoly,  the  extraordinary  devel- 
opment within  the  last  few  years  of  the  American  export  trade.  The  intro- 
duction of  all  kinds  of  goods  from  that  country  into  Great  Britain  and  her 
colonies  has  now  become  a matter  of  the  most  vital  importance  to  our  manu- 
facturers. American  exports,  too,  are  still  in  their  infancy,  and  yet  we  can 
not  say  that  they  have  not  established  a firm  footing.  They  have  indeed  done 
so,  and  already  many  branches  of  our  commerce  are  beginning  to  suffer  from 
the  competition. 


The  Country  not  so  Poor  after  all. — The  country  is  filling 
up  at  a wonderful  rate,  and,  whatever  the  condition  of  the  times, 
new  cities  are  being  built  and  new  States  are  preparing  to  take 
their  places  in  the  Union.  Kansas,  especially,  is  filling  up  with 
wonderful  rapidity,  and  there  are  in  these  movements  signs  of  a 
renewed  prosperity  which  must  come  and  be  lasting,  for  it  will  be 
based  upon  absolute  wealth.  England  increases  her  capital  while 
the  people  remain  poor ; there  can  be  no  spread  of  wealth  there,  for 
there  is  nothing  to  change  the  condition  of  the  working  classes. 
Here,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  no  limit  to  individual  exertion  and 
enterprise,  and,  with  all  the  outcry  against  capital  and  jeremiads 
over  starving  laborers,  there  is  a more  complete  distribution  of 
capital  than  in  any  other  country.  Our  large  cities  are  not  the 
criterions  by  which  we  are  to  judge.  In  them  everywhere  ex- 
tremes meet  and  labor  acquires  fixed  habits  and  is  rigid  and  in- 
flexible ; but  take  the  average  condition  of  our  people  throughout 
the  land ; look  at  their  houses,  tables,  dress ; at  their  cattle  and 
their  farms,  their  shops  and  mills,  their  schools  and  churches,  and 
no  such  spectacle  of  universal  comfort  can  elsewhere  be  found. — 
Newark  Advertiser. 


Many  of  the  principal  hardware  importing  houses  of  New  York 
are  quietly  reversing  the  order  of  their  business,  and  are  employing 
their  foreign  connections  in  exporting  and  distributing  American 
specialties  throughout  Europe. 


EUROPE  JEALOUS  OF  OUR  PROSPERITY. 


9 


English  newspapers  are  still  hopeful  of  the  success  of  British 
manufacturers  in  inducing  Congress  to  reduce  our  tariff  for  their 
benefit  next  winter.  The  London  Iron  for  July  6th  closes  an 
elaborate  editorial  on  “ The  American  Tariff”  in  the  following 
words : “ The  American  free  trade  party  have  already  secured  far 
better  earnest  of  success  than  their  English  predecessors  possessed 
before  the  protectionist  citadel  was  surrendered  by  Sir  Bobert  Peel, 
and  may  confidently  look  forward  to  complete  victory  in  the  future .” 
The  Middlesbrough  Iron  and  Coal  Trades  Review  for  July  12th 
also  refers  at  length  to  the  same  subject,  and  pats  Mr.  Wood  on  the 
back  as  follows  : “We  can  well  understand  why  the  majority  of  the 
iron  trade  publications  in  the  States  go  so  strongly  in  for  protection, 
and  indulge  in  such  violent  diatribes  against  all  who  presume  to  say 
anything  in  defense  of  free  trade.  The  ‘ protection  of  native  indus- 
try ’ is  a fine-sounding  term,  which  will  not  stand  proof  much  longer. 
The  Hon.  Mr.  Wood  may  well  talce  heart  at  the  success  which  he 
has  met  with  in  connection  with  his  bill,  and  doubtless  he  will  have 
better  luck  next  time.”  Let  the  reader  observe  that  these  exulting 
predictions  are  uttered  by  English  newspapers,  which  represent 
English  manufacturing  and  commercial  interests. — Bulletin  of  the 
American  Iron  and  Steel  Association. 


The  reports  of  the  commercial  agents  of  the  government,  con- 
cerning the  condition  of  industrial  affairs  in  the  manufacturing 
countries  of  Europe,  give  additional  evidence  of  the  fact  that  the 
former  prosperity  of  those  countries  resulted  in  a great  measure 
from  the  extravagant  purchases  by  the  American  people  of  their 
products  and  manufactures,  the  greater  part  of  which  consisted  of 
articles  of  luxury.  The  depression  in  business  here  caused  a large 
falling  off  in  the  importation  of  European  merchandise,  and  the 
distress  of  those  whose  profits  or  living,  depended  upon  the  sale  of 
their  goods  in  this  country.  They  are  now  exceedingly  anxious  to 
secure  commercial  treaties  with  our  government,  with  the  expecta- 
tion that  business  will  revive  here  and  enable  them  to  do  our  manu- 
facturing and  keep  us  at  work  in  producing  raw  materials  and  food 
for  their  use. 

To  unsophisticated  Americans  it  may  seem  strange  that  there  can 
be  a hope  of  success  in  accomplishing  such  a design,  but  it  must  be 
kept  in  mind  that  European  capitalists,  merchants,  manufacturers, 
and  producers  have  an  immense  influence  in  the  management  of 


10  FOREIGN  ASSAULTS  UPON  OUR  PROTECTIVE  TARIFF. 


our  commercial  and  financial  affairs,  and  the  unlimited  amount  of 
money  at  their  disposal  enables  them  to  do  many  things  for  their 
own  benefit  which  is  detrimental  to  us. — Philadelphia  Evening  Star. 


The  London  Iron , at  the  close  of  a leading  editorial  article  on 
“ American  Iron,”  says:  “It  is  rash  to  predict  that  no  attempt  to 
revise  the  tariff  will  be  made  during  the  next  session  of  Congress. 
It  would  be  rasher  still  to  assume  that  a revised  tariff*  does  not  be- 
come a law  within  half  a dozen  years.”  Now  what  we  want  to 
know  is  this : How  did  our  friends  who  edit  one  of  the  leading  or- 
gans of  English  manufacturers  learn  that  our  tariff  is  to  be  revised 
next  winter?  How  did  they  become  privy  to  the  secret  counsels  of 
Mr.  Fernando  Wood,  Mr.  Eandolph  Tucker,  and  other  free  trade 
members  of  Congress?  The  American  people  ought  to  know  some- 
thing of  the  workings  of  their  own  government — something  of  the 
purposes  of  their  Congressional  representatives,  and  yet  here  is  a 
measure  of  legislation  involving  the  welfare  of  many  millions  of 
them  of  which  they  are  said  to  know  nothing  while  their  industrial 
rivals  know  all.  Speaking  for  ourself,  we  hope  we  are  becomingly 
and  sufficiently  thankful  for  being  set  right  in  this  matter  even  at 
this  late  day,  but  we  want  to  know  all  the  facts — we  want  to  know 
how  the  editors  of  Iron  found  it  all  out. — Bulletin  of  the  American 
Iron  and  Steel  Association. 


A Voice  from  Missouri. — Missouri  wants  a full  delegation  in 
the  next  Congress  in  favor  of  protection  to  all  home  industries. 
Both  the  farmer  and  the  manufacturer  are  benefited  by  bringing 
fabrication  near  to  production.  Half  a million  additional  miners, 
machinists,  and  workmen  in  our  mills  and  shops  would  greatly 
augment  our  consumption  of  farm  products,  and  largely  enrich  the 
material  interests  of  our  own  State.  In  the  late  session  of  Congress 
ten  of  our  thirteen  members  voted  practically  for  no  protection  and 
against  the  manufacturers’  interests  and  the  mechanics’  interests 
and  the  farmers’  interests.  Our  revenue  laws  should  be  framed  on 
the  principle  of  self-interest — for  the  entire  nation.  Our  people 
are  bound  together  as  one.  If  the  mining  and  iron  interests  suffer, 
it  is  soon  felt  by  all.  The  American  policy  is  the  true  one  for  the 
American  people — a tariff  for  revenue,  with  incidental  protection 
against  foreign  labor  and  products. — St.  Louis  Review. 


WAGES  AND  PRICES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


11 


Figures  for  the  Workingmen. — The  following  table,  being 
the  price  list  of  wholesale  grocers  and  dry  goods  dealers  in  1864, 
and  the  prices  for  the  same  goods  at  the  present  time,  shows  the 
difference  in  the  cost  of  living : 


1864. 

1878. 

1864. 

1878. 

Crushed  sugar 

$0  20  $0  10 

Delaines 

....  $0  40  $0  10 

C!ubft  sngn.r  

21 

8 

Ginghams 

40 

6 

New  Orleans  molasses, 

Checks 

18 

gal 

1 35 

40 

Best  ticking 

75 

25 

“Coffee,  lb 

46 

40 

Balmoral  skirts 

....  5 00 

1 50 

Cotton,  lb 

1*00 

12 

Brown  drills 

60 

12 

Pork,  bbl 

45  00 

9 00 

Canton  flannels 

65 

8 

Gold 

2 50 

1 00£ 

Bleached  muslins 

55 

12 

Prints 

40 

6 

Brown  muslins 

8 

The  footing  of  the  list  for  1864  is  $61.07,  while  that  for  1878  is 
but  $13.45  for  the  same  articles.  In  1864  laborers  received  at  the 
rate  of  $2  per  day,  while  now  the  same  class  of  workmen  receive 
from  $1  to  $1.25  per  day ; but  the  $1  a day  they  now  earn  will 
purchase  nearly  two  and  one-half  times  as  much  as  the  $2  they 
earned  in  1864. — Milwaukee  Sentinel. 


Wages  and  Prices  in  1860  and  1878. — The  following  letter 
was  presented,  on  the  28th  of  August,  to  the  Congressional  Com- 
mittee of  Inquiry  on  the  Labor  Question,  of  which  Mr.  Hewitt  is 
chairman : 

I live  in  Woburn,  Mass.,  a town  containing  10,500  inhabitants,  the  business 
of  which  is  principally  making  leather.  I ask  your  attention  to  the  following 
facts  and  ideas  : Materials  and  provisions  necessary  to  support  a family  are  as 
low  as  at  any  former  period,  and  more  can  be  bought  to-day  for  an  average 
week’s  work  than  at  any  former  time.  I call  your  attention  to  a list  of  prices 
of  various  articles  of  consumption  used  in  all  families  in  the  years  1860, 1865, 
and  1878,  obtained  from  a reliable  source : 


I860. 

1865. 

1878. 

I860. 

1865. 

1878. 

Flour 

Corn 

Butter..  

Pork 

Tea 

$8  00 
1 75 
23 
12 
50 

$20  00 
2 25 
60 
30 

1 50 

$8  00 

1 25 
23 
12 
50 

Sugar 

Fish 

Beans 

Cotton  cloth... 

$0  11 

4 

6 

14 

$0  16 
12 
12 
33 

$0  10 
6 
8 
8 

12 


WAGES  AND  PRICES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


The  following  prices  were  also  paid  for  labor  in  the  same  years,  and  were 
taken  from  one  of  the  leading  manufacturers  in  town : 


1860. 

1865.  | 1878. 

First-class  mechanics 

$1  50 

1 17 

1 00 

$2  50  $2  17 

1 75  | 1 42 
1 50  ! 1 25- 

1 

Second-class  mechanics 

Laborers 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  provisions  are  as  cheap  or  cheaper  to-day  than  in 
1860,  and  the  workingman  is  getting  more  pay  now  than  then,  while,  in  1865, 
his  condition  was  much  more  unfavorable  than  in  any  of  the  other  years.  I 
think  there  has  been  more  uneasiness  and  suffering  among  the  laboring  men 
for  lack  of  employment  than  from  low  wages.  Truly, 

John  Clough. 


Iron-moulders  in  New  England  earned,  in  1860,  about  $11  a 
week.  Their  wages  gradually  increased  during  the  war  and  the 
years  that  succeeded,  until,  before  the  panic  in  1873,  they  were 
paid  $16  a week,  the  increase  being  45  per  cent.  Now  they  receive 
$13  a week.  In  1873  prices  of  commodities  were  much  lower  than 
they  had  been  in  1865  and  1866,  and  a week’s  wages  would  for  the 
first  time  purchase  about  the  same  quantities  of  the  common  neces- 
saries of  life  as  in  1860,  although  there  had  been  times  when  prices 
had  been  proportionally  much  higher  than  wages.  Indeed,  that  had 
been  true  most  of  the  time  after  prices  began  to  advance.  Now,  a 
New  England  iron-moulder  earns  18  per  cent,  more  than  in  1860, 
while  a dollar  is  just  as  valuable  as  it  was  before  the  war. — New 
York  Tribune. 


The  Ascending  Scale. — Of  late  years  all  statistical  references 
to  the  export  trade  of  the  republic  are  in  a vein  of  rejoicing  and  ex- 
ultation at  the  remarkable  increase  both  in  the  aggregate  and  in  all 
the  leading  items.  Times  and  things  have  changed  materially  since 
Mr.  I).  A.  Wells  contrasted  various  current  totals  of  production  and 
shipment  with  those  of  1860,  which  year  stood  for  some  time  as  a 
memorable  era  for  political  economists  of  the  free-trade  school.  In 
the  fiscal  year  1860  the  domestic  exports  were  $316,242,423,  and  in 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1878,  they  were  $680,683,798,  an  in- 
crease so  great  as  to  surpass  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  our 
people. — Philadelphia  North  American. 


THE  FAILURE  OF  BRITISH  FREE  TRADE. 


13 


THE  FAILURE  OF  BRITISH  FREE  TRADE. 

The  fact  that  the  progress  of  the  United  States  in  everything 
which  pertains  to  manufactures  is  interfering  with  the  great  indus- 
tries of  Europe  is  seen  even  more  clearly  by  European  eyes  than 
by  those  of  our  own  manufacturers.  A committee  was  appointed 
last  November  by  the  French  Senate  to  inquire  into  the  reasons  for 
the  existing  dullness  of  trade  in  Europe.  The  committee  had  M. 
Pouyer-Quertier  as  its  president,  and  has  recently  made  its  report. 
After  speaking  of  the  fact  that  the  increase  of  production  had  ex- 
ceeded the  consumptive  demand,  and  saying  that  the  United  States 
had,  “under  the  cover  of  protection,  reared  a most  powerful  indus- 
try, which  in  nearly  every  article  begins  to  compete  with  the  manu- 
factures of  England  and  Europe,  the  world  over,”  it  makes  this  ref- 
erence to  the  establishment  of  the  free-trade  policy  by  England,  and 
its  results : 

England  was  fully  equipped  with  the  necessary  machinery  for  stocking 
the  world  with  its  manufactures.  The  English  were  sanguine  enough  to 
hope  that  the  world’s  raw  produce  would  flow  into  their  country  from  all 
quarters,  to  be  returned  in  the  manufactured  state  from  their  great  workshops. 
In  order  to  carry  out  this  problem  they  had  the  vessels  to  bring  the  cotton, 
the  ores,  wool,  etc.,  and  would  return  them  laden.  They  had  the  cheapest 
coal  and  iron.  England’s  spindles,  looms,  and  workshops  were  countless  in 
number,  and  they  are  so  still.  When  Cobden  had  made  free  traders  out  of 
his  countrymen  who  had  been  clinging  to  protection  for  centuries,  he  did  so 
animated  by  some  such  gigantic  project,  and  England  may  well  erect  statues 
to  do  him  honor. 

But  could  Cobden  foresee  that  the  day  would  come  when  the  Americans 
would  resolve  upon  spinning  and  weaving  their  own  cotton,  instead  of  ship- 
ping it  to  England  to  be  converted  into  manufactures?  Could  he  have 
foreseen  that  the  Americans  would  at  some  future  day  close  their  market,  and 
having  iron,  coal,  cotton,  and  other  raw  material,  all  on  the  spot,  build  manu- 
factories by  the  thousand  ? 

Had  he  any  conception  of  the  possibility  of  the  Americans  one  day  pos- 
sessing cotton  mills  with  400,000  spindles  and  3,500  looms  in  a single  factory, 
as  they  may  be  met  with  at  Lowell ; that  one  machine-shop  would  turn  out 
450  locomotives  in  a single  year  ; in  other  words,  that  this  new  manufacturing 
country  would  become  the  rival  of  England,  send  its  cotton  goods  to  Man- 
chester and  watches  to  Geneva?  England,  after  reaping  great  advantages 
from  the  new  politico-economical  system  inaugurated  by  her,  has  now  found 
her  rivals  in  the  Americans,  in  her  own  subjects  in  India,  and  in  the  metal- 
lurgical branch  in  Germany. 

To-day  there  is  a loud  wail  throughout  all  of  Great  Britain, 
because  of  the  alarming  depression  in  her  leading  industries. 


14 


HOW  ENGLAND  BUILT  UP  HER  MANUFACTURES. 


How  England  Built  up  her  Manufacturing  Supremacy. — 
“A  Working  Man/’  under  date  of  August  1st,  writes  a long  com- 
munication to  the  London  Capital  and  Labour  of  August  21st,  con- 
trasting the  present  condition  of  the  English  laboring  classes  with 
their  condition  a generation  ago,  when  England  made  such  gigantic 
strides  in  supplying  the  world  with  her  manufactures.  We  quote 
a few  paragraphs,  as  follows : 

Those  of  us  who  began  factory  life  from  forty  to  fifty  years  ago,  and  at  the 
tender  age  of  six  or  seven  years  (then  quite  common),  working  from  twelve  ta 
sixteen  hours  a day,  as  the  pressure  of  business  might  require — missing  all 
schooling,  and  often  brutally  treated — may  surely  be  pardoned  if  we  reproach 
the  well-protected,  easier  worked,  and  better  paid  operatives  of  to-day  for  their 
lack  of  appreciation  of  the  many  advantages  they  now  enjoy. 

What  factory  labor  was  before  Parliament  interfered,  or  rather  before  law 
humanized  it,  may  be  learnt  (by  such  as  do  not  know)  from  the  several  Par- 
liamentary Reports,  which  contain  some  horrid,  yet  “ o’er  true  tales”  of  hard- 
ship and  suffering.  These,  if  more  widely  known,  might  make  some  of  the 
discontented  better  satisfied  with  their  lot,  by  leading  them  to  a juster  appre- 
ciation of  their  present  privileges.  When,  as  mere  children,  we  had  to  work 
at  times  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hours  a day,  we  actually  did  go  to  sleep  on 
our  feet  while  yet  about  our  work,  and  often  were  so  weary  that,  on  quitting 
work  at  nine  or  ten  P.  M.,  we  would  hide  away  in  some  corner  of  the  factory 
and  sleep  till  morning.  In  the  Parliamentary  Reports  there  is  ample  evi- 
dence, medical  and  other,  to  show  that  our  fate  was  then  worse  than  that  of  slave 
children  in  the  West  Indies , and  such  was  undoubtedly  the  fact.  In  view  of  the 
real  labor  troubles  we  then  endured,  how  insignificant  are  those  now  com- 
plained of!  We  were  driven  to  the  factory  three  or  four  years  younger  than, 
children  are  now  permitted  to  go;  we  were  compelled  to  work  more  than, 
double  the  number  of  hours  now  worked  by  children ; and,  worst  of  all,  we 
were  denied  all  opportunity  for  schooling,  the  days  being  too  full  of  labor,  and 
we  too  weary  to  derive  much  benefit  from  the  Sunday-school.  Tens  of  thou- 
sands who,  like  the  present  writer,  were  born  too  soon  to  share  the  benefits  of 
the  educational  clauses  of  the  Factory  Acts,  never  got  any  schooling ; and 
while  some  of  us  did  in  after-life  accomplish  something  in  the  way  of  self- 
education,  many  thousands,  not  so  fortunate,  lived  and  died  without  ever  ac- 
quiring the  ability  to  read.  At  that  time  many  of  the  wealthier  class  believed 
that  the  laboring  class  would  actually  be  better  fitted  for  a proper  discharge 
of  their  duties  without  education,  and  the  overworked  operatives  were,  to  a 
great  extent,  insensible  to  its  advantages. 

In  1832  the  operative,  young  or  old,  had  no  legal  protection,  except  in  cot- 
ton factories ; he  had  no  time  for  education,  if  indeed  he  had  any  desire,  and 
his  right  thereto  was  practically  denied ; nor  had  he  any  better  safe  deposit 
than  the  pawnbroker’s  shop ; nor  hardly  any  opportunity  to  breathe  the  pure 
air.  Almost  without  secure  self-helpful  association,  his  labor  burdened  and 
fettered  by  a one-sided  fiscal  system,  the  enforcement  of  his  legal  claims  made 
practically  impossible  by  the  stamp  duties  ; even  his  light,  cleanliness,  provi 


BRITISH  PHILANTHROPY — FREE  TRADE  TRIUMPHS. 


15 


dence,  and  all  means  and  instruments  of  knowledge  were  taxed,  while  he 
was  also  exposed  to  the  degrading  influence  of  the  then  pauperizing  poor 
laws. 


Characteristic  British  Philanthropy. — In,  a notice  of  the 
exports  of  British  pig  iron  in-  the.  month  of  Jiily  Iasi’,  The  Iron  and 
Coal  Trades  Review,  of  Middlesbrough,  complacently  remarks  as 
follows:  “Germany  continues  to  be  b$  far,  oUl*  best  customer,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  poor  state  of  the1  manufactured  iron  trade  over 
there,  the  shipments  increase  rather  than  decline.  It  may  safely  be 
calculated  that  over  40,000  tons  of  British  pig  iron  per  month  are 
now  sent  to  Germany,  which  quantity  is  considerably  more  than  would 
be  taken  if  the  protectionists  had  their  way . It  is  interesting  to  us, 
therefore,  to  note  that  the  recent  elections  have  gone  decidedly 
against  the  protectionists.”  But  we  doubt  that  they  have.  Wait  a 
little.  The  Review  further  airs  its  free  trade  philanthropy  as  fol- 
lows: “Belgium  receives  regularly  something  like  9,500  tons  per 
month,  but,  should  the  British  Iron  Trade  Association  be  successful 
in  obtaining  the  repeal  of  the  duty  now  levied  on  the  imports  of  British 
pig  iron,  we  may  look  for  a substantial  increase .”  Of  course  you 
may.  From  all  which  we  may  infer  what  the  fate  of  this  country 
would  be  if  our  British  rivals  could  have  their  own  way  with  the 
American  tariff. — Bulletin  of  American  Iron  and  Steel  Association. 


Free  Trade  Triumphs. — The  places  where  free  trade  points  for 
its  triumphs  human  life  is  to  be  seen  in  its  most  degraded  con- 
ditions. The  clatter  of  the  wooden-shoed  Manchester  factory  hands 
in  the  dark  of  a winter’s  morning,  the  tread  of  the  collier  boys  long 
before  daybreak,  and  the  coarse  laugh  of  the  bank  girls  on  their 
way  to  the  pits,  the  stare  of  half-naked  boys  and  girls  in  the  brick 
fields,  the  semi-savage  habits  of  women  and  girls  in  the  nail  districts, 
the  million  of  public-fed  paupers,  and  millions  of  paupers  starving 
in  their  honest  pride,  preferring  any  suffering  to  the  workhouse,  the 
sweating  system  of  tailors,  the  mere  animal  life  of  the  peasants  of 
agricultural  countries,  are  among  the  glorious  sounds  and  sights  of 
free  trade,  the  great  principle  of  which  is  that  neither  humanity  nor 
religion  has  any  right  to  stand  between  the  buyer  of  labor  and  the 
seller  in  any  effort  the  former  may  make  to  monopolize  trade  by 
cheap  goods. — Toronto  ( Canada ) Mail. 


16 


THE  VASSALAGE  OF  FREE  TRADE. 


THE  VASSALAGE  OF  FREE  TRADE. 

(From  the  Chicago  Evening  Journal,  June  26,  1878.) 

The  practice  of  frec-t^ade.  doctrines  is  antagonistic  to  the  spirit  of 
self-reliance  and  independence..  It  tends  more  and  more  to  dimin- 
ish the  number,  and , variety  of  domestic  manufactures ; to  narrow 
the  circle  of  .employments ; to  transform  the  artisan  into  a tiller  of 
the  soil;  to  limit  the  occupations  of  the  people  mainly  to  agricul- 
ture; to  compel  the ‘producer  to  seek  a distant  market;  to  deplete  the 
productivity  of  land  by  ‘exporting  its  fertilizing  constituents  in  the 
shape  of  raw  materials;  to  permit  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  coun- 
try to  remain  dead  capital,  buried  under  ground ; to  cause  sluggish- 
ness in  the  circulation  of  ideas  and  commodities ; to  create  a helpless 
dependence  upon  other  nations  for  the  finished  wares  of  reproduc- 
tive industry,  and  to  end  in  general  impoverishment  and  national 
decay.  England’s  policy  of  unrestricted  competition  is  intended  to 
reduce  other  countries  to  this  vassalage  toward  herself.  What  she 
thinks  in  the  sincerity  of  her  heart  of  the  theory  of  free  trade  is 
manifest  from  the  following  extract  from  a speech  of  a member  of 
the  British  Parliament,  delivered  at  a time  when  the  United  States 
had  adopted  the  system  of  protection,  and  quoted  by  Henry  Clay, 
in  1832,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States : 

It  was  idle  for  us  to  endeavor  to  persuade  other  nations  to  join  with  us  in 
adopting  the  principles  of  what  was  called  “free  trade.”  Other  nations  know 
as  well  as  the  noble  lord  opposite,  and  those  who  acted  with  him,  what  we 
meant  by  “free  trade”  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than,  by  means  of  the  great 
advantages  we  enjoyed,  to  get  a monopoly  of  all  their  markets  for  our  manu- 
factures, and  to  prevent  them,  one  and  all,  from  ever  becoming  manufacturing 
nations.  When  the  system  of  reciprocity  and  free  trade  had  been  proposed  to 
a French  ambassador,  his  remark  was  that  the  plan  was  excellent  in  theory, 
but  to  make  it  fair  in  practice  it  would  be  necessary  to  defer  the  attempt  to 
put  it  in  execution  for  half  a century,  until  France  should  be  on  the  same 
footing  with  Great  Britain,  in  marine,  in  manufactures,  in  capital,  and  the 
many  other  peculiar  advantages  which  it  now  enjoyed.  The  policy  France 
acted  on  was  that  of  encouraging  its  native  manufactures,  and  it  was  a wise 
policy ; because,  if  it  were  freely  to  admit  our  manufactures,  it  would  speedily 
be  reduced  to  the  rank  of  an  agricultural  nation , and,  therefore,  a poor  nation , 
as  all  must  be  that  depend  exclusively  upon  agriculture.  America  acted,  too, 
upon  the  same  principle  with  France.  America  legislated  for  futurity — legis- 
lated for  an  increasing  population.  America,  too,  was  prospering  under  this 
system. 

When  nearly  the  whole  body  of  the  people  are  engaged  in  agri- 
culture, a home  market  for  any  considerable  surplus  of  the  crops  is 


THE  VASSALAGE  OF  FREE  TRADE. 


17 


a simple  impossibility.  The  grower  of  cotton,  or  tobacco,  or  rice,  or 
wheat,  or  corn,  has  neither  need  nor  desire  to  purchase  a like  prod- 
uct; he  is  always  and  everywhere  a seller,  not  a buyer,  of  the 
commodity.  If  his  excess  over  his  own  wants  can  not  find  con- 
sumption in  his  own  neighborhood,  it  must  be  sent  to  a distant  one 
for  that  purpose ; and  if  customers  or  consumers  can  not  be  found 
nearer  than  Liverpool,  his  products  must  cross  the  ocean  in  search 
of  a market.  His  pay,  after  deducting  the  cost  of  a long  transpor- 
tation and  the  profits  of  many  middlemen,  comes  back  in  the  shape 
of  cloth,  clothing,  hats,  boots,  shoes,  utensils,  implements,  furniture, 
and  the  whole  round  of  articles  required  to  meet  the  demands  of 
household  and  plantation  or  farm  life.  Many  tons  of  raw  material 
are  exchanged  for  a single  ton  of  finished  products.  A piece  of 
dress  silk  or  a bolt  of  broadcloth  represents  a number  of  bales  of 
cotton,  or  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  or  tierces  of  rice,  or  bushels  of  wheat 
or  of  corn,  packed  in  small  compass.  The  tax  of  transportation  on 
the  outgoing  freight  is  large  and  onerous,  because  of  the  great  bulk 
of  the  commodity ; that  on  the  incoming  freight  is  small  and  easily 
borne,  because  of  the  diminutive  bulk.  These  several  taxes  come 
out  of  the  pockets  of  the  several  producers  ; for  he  who  is  dependent 
upon  a distant  market  for  his  products  must  either  himself  pay  the 
cost  of  their  transportation  to  that  market,  or  else  sell  to  some  trader 
who  will,  the  net  price  received  being  minus  the  sum  required  to 
remove  the  purchase  to  such  market.  In  this  transaction  each 
several  agriculturist  is  a considerable  loser,  on  account  of  the  large 
size  and  weight  of  his  raw  material ; while  the  manufacturer  suffers 
only  a trifling  loss,  his  finished  product  being  compact  and  usually 
light. 

Such  is  the  system  of  exchanges  which  long  prevailed  at  the 
South,  during  the  existence  of  slavery,  as  a necessary  outgrowth  of 
the  divorce  of  diversified  industry  from  agriculture  and  trade,  that 
section  having  refused  to  accept  manufacturing  development  because 
believed  to  be  inimical  to  the  economic  theory  of  capital  owning  its 
labor.  The  North,  particularly  the  eastern  portion,  which  adopted 
tariff  protection  as  a regenerative  and  elevating  force,  became  the 
middleman  who  purchased  the  surplus  of  her  plantations,  and  paid 
for  it  in  wares  and  merchandise.  Her  producers  were  always  in 
debt  for  supplies,  and  evermore  discounting  the  growing  crops. 
Indeed,  for  a quarter  of  a century  previous  to  the  rebellion,  there 
were  few  days  when  she  was  not  indebted  to  the  protective  North  to 
the  value  of  one  season’s  growth  of  cotton.  Her  dependence  upon 


18 


THE  VASSALAGE  OF  FREE  TRADE. 


distant  markets  for  almost  every  necessary,  comfort,  convenience, 
and  luxury  of  life  not  extracted  from  the  soil  in  the  shape  of  a raw 
material  was  complete,  universal,  helpless,  and  disgraceful.  Her 
merchants  could  not  stir  in  their  business ; her  planters  could  not 
enter  upon  the  routine  of  agricultural  work;  her  laborers  could 
scarcely  put  food  in  their  mouths;  her  women  could  not  even 
arrange  their  hair,  without  testifying  to  this  humiliating  depend- 
ence. Its  extremity,  as  exemplified  in  the  life  of  a Southern  gentle- 
man, has  been  portrayed  with  such  graphic  force  and  fidelity  by 
Mr.  Helper,  in  his  once-famous  book,  “ The  Impending  Crisis,”  that 
we  reproduce  the  outline  with  the  indorsement  of  all  our  own  per- 
sonal observation  and  remembrance : 

See  him  rise  in  the  morning  from  a Northern  bed,  and  clothe  himself  in 
Northern  apparel ; see  him  walk  across  the  room  on  a Northern  carpet,  and  see 
him  perform  his  ablutions  out  of  a Northern  basin  and  ewer.  See  him  un- 
cover a box  of  Northern  powder,  and  cleanse  his  teeth  with  a Northern  brush  ; 
see  him  reflect  his  physiognomy  in  a Northern  mirror,  and  arrange  his  hair 
with  a Northern  comb.  See  him  dosing  himself  with  the  medicaments  of 
Northern  quacks,  and  perfuming  his  handkerchief  with  Northern  cologne. 
See  him  referring  to  the  time  in  a Northern  watch,  and  glancing  at  the  news 
in  a Northern  gazette.  See  him  and  his  family  sitting  in  Northern  chairs,  and 
singing  and  praying  out  of  Northern  books.  See  him  at  the  breakfast  table, 
saying  grace  over  a Northern  plate,  eating  Avith  Northern  cutlery,  and  drink- 
ing from  Northern  utensils.  See  him  charmed  with  the  melody  of  a Northern 
piano,  or  musing  over  the  pages  of  a Northern  novel.  See  him  riding  to  his 
neighbor’s  in  a Northern  carriage,  or  furrowing  his  lands  with  a Northern 
plow.  See  him  lighting  his  cigar  with  a Northern  match. 

See  him  with  Northern  pen  and  ink,  writing  letters  on  Northern  paper,  and 
sending  them  away  in  Northern  envelopes,  sealed  with  Northern  wax,  and  im- 
pressed with  a Northern  seal. 

Such  were  and  are  the  legitimate  and  unavoidable  fruits  of  free 
trade — such  the  helpless  and  abject  dependence  which  it  inflicts 
upon  its  dupes  and  victims.  Substitute  for  “ Northern  ” the  words 
British  and  foreign,  then  we  shall  have  an  accurate  picture  of  the 
degrading  and  subservient  condition  to  which  the  whole  country 
would  be  reduced  by  a long  practice  of  free-trade  doctrines. 


There  can  be  no  greater  error  than  to  expect  or  calculate  upon 
real  favors  from  nation  to  nation.  It  is  an  illusion  which  experience 
must  cure;  which  a just  pride  ought  to  discard. — Samuel  Harris . 


OUR  EXPORTS  OF  FOOD  PRODUCTS. 


10 


OUR  EXPORTS  OF  FOOD  PRODUCTS. 

(From  the  Chicago  Evening  Journal , June  20,  1878.) 

The  country  is  being  flooded  with  the  speech  on  the  tariff  ques- 
tion by  the  Hon.  John  Randolph  Tucker,  of  Virginia.  This,  with 
other  literature  of  like  character,  is  intended  to  manufacture  public 
opinion  in  favor  of  continuing  the  agitation  for  a revision  of  our 
customs  laws,  Mr.  Wood,  since  the  defeat  of  his  bill,  having  given 
written  notice  that  he  intends  to  introduce  another  measure  on  the 
first  day  of  the  next  session  of  Congress.  As  Mr.  Tucker’s  speech 
has  been  largely  sent  to  the  West,  it  may  be  well  to  point  out  the 
fallacy  of  his  arguments.  Here  is  a sample : 

* Now  let  us  look  at  this  matter  in  the  light  of  statistics.  We  exported  in 
1877,  in  round  numbers,  $115,000,000  of  breadstuff’s,  $171,000,000  of  cotton, 
$110,000,000  of  provisions,  $28,000,000  of  tobacco,  and  so  on.  The  aggregate 
of  our  exports  is  six  hundred  and  some  odd  million  dollars.  The  agricultural 
exports  amount  to  nearly  $500,000,000 ; that  is  to  say,  that  nearly  five-sixths  of 
the  exports  of  the  country  are  produced  by  the  tillers  of  the  soil.  Now  this 
enormous  production  is  not  dependent  for  its  price,  and  therefore  its  value,  on 
the  home  demand,  but  on  the  foreign  demand.  I ask,  gentlemen,  where  is 
the  justice  of  limiting  by  excessive  duties  the  imports  of  the  country,  which 
are  the  means  the  foreigner  brings  to  pay  us  a good  price  for  our  exports  ? 

In  return,  we  may  ask,  what  is  the  sense  or  use  of  exporting 
breadstuff’s  and  provisions,  in  order  to  buy  them  bach,  after  adding 
the  cost  of  a double  transportation  and  the  profits  of  many  middle- 
men? Yet  this  is  exactly  what  happens  regarding  much  of  the  food 
and  other  raw  materials  which  we  send  to  foreign  countries.  Among 
the  elements  which  make  up  the  cost  of  every  bale  of  cloth  and  of 
every  ton  of  iron  is  the  subsistence  of  the  laborers  employed  in  pro- 
ducing these  articles.  When  they  are  imported  we  pay  back  to  the 
foreign  manufacturer,  as  an  essential  and  unavoidable  part  of  his 
price,  the  wages  paid  by  him  to  his  work-people,  and  by  that  act 
indirectly,  yet  not  less  surely,  pay  for  the  breadstuff’s  and  provisions 
consumed  by  those  persons  while  rendering  the  services  embodied 
in  the  imported  commodities.  In  this  way  every  finished  product 
brought  into  this  country  from  abroad  represents  a certain  quantity 
of  food;  consequently,  by  importing,  in  the  fiscal  year  1877,  wholly 
manufactured  articles  to  the  value  of  $256,790,875,  we  bought  bach, 
at  greatly  enhanced  prices,  what  was  equivalent  to  a very  consider- 
able portion  of  the  $225,000,000  of  breadstuff’s  and  provisions  which 
we  exported  in  the  same  year.  Is  that  mode  of  conducting  foreign 


20 


OUR  EXPORTS  OF  FOOD  PRODUCTS. 


trade  likely  to  enrich  a nation,  or  is  it  worthy  to  he  promoted  by 
low  duties  on  imports?  As  regards  raw  cotton,  the  case  is  still  more 
unreasonable.  Why  should  we  send  the  fleecy  staple,  with  food 
added,  more  than  3,000  miles  to  the  loom  and  the  spindle,  in  pref- 
erence to  bringing  the  spindle  and  the  loom,  once  for  all,  to  the 
place  where  the  fleecy  staple  is  grown  ? Can  any  one  honestly  com- 
mend, on  the  score  of  wise  economy,  the  varied  movement  of  raw 
materials  from  the  farm  across  an  ocean  to  the  factory,  and  their 
return  from  thence,  in  manufactured  form,  over  the  same  long  dis- 
tance to  this  country  for  consumption,  loaded  with  the  cost  of  freight 
and  insurance  both  ways,  besides  profits  and  other  charges,  when 
our  own  labor  and  machinery  are  fully  equal  to  the  task  of  convert- 
ing those  raw  materials  into  finished  products  ? All  these  varied 
and  frequent  movements  to  and  fro  constitute  only  a spurious  sort 
of  commerce,  for  a genuine  commerce  can  not  properly  fulfill  its 
functions  by  interposing  vast  distances  between  production  and  re- 
production— between  manufacturer  and  consumer — involving  the 
grinding  tax  of  transportation  and  the  expense  of  a swarm  of  mid- 
dlemen. 

Adam  Smith,  who  first  formulated  the  propositions  of  political 
economy,  says,  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  third  book  of  his  cele- 
brated work  on  “ The  Wealth  of  Nations,”  what  follows : 

The  manufacturers  first  supply  the  neighborhood,  and  afterward,  as  their 
work  improves  and  refines,  more  distant  markets.  For  though  neither  the 
rude  produce,  nor  even  the  coarse  manufacture,  could,  without  the  greatest 
difficulty,  support  the  expense  of  a considerable  land  carriage,  the  refined  and 
improved  manufacture  easily  may.  In  a small  bulk  it  frequently  contains  the 
price  of  a great  quantity  of  the  raw  produce.  A piece  of  fine  cloth,  for  example, 
which  weighs  only  eighty  pounds,  contains  in  it  the  price , not  only  of  eighty 
pounds  of  wool , but  sometimes  of  several  thousand  weight  of  corn , the  maintenance  of 
the  different  working  people,  and  of  their  immediate  employers.  The  corn  which 
could  with  difficulty  have  been  carried  abroad  in  its  own  shape  is  in  this 
manner  virtually  exported  in  that  of  the  complete  manufacture,  and  may  easily  be 
sent  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  world. 

He  further  says,  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  fourth  book : 

A small  quantity  of  manufactured  produce  purchases  a great  quantity  of 
rude  produce.  A trading  and  manufacturing  country,  therefore,  naturally 
purchases  with  a small  part  of  its  manufactured  produce  a great  part  of  the 
rude  produce  of  other  countries ; while,  on  the  contrary,  a country  without 
trade  and  manufactures  is  generally  obliged  to  purchase,  at  the  expense  of  a 
great  part  of  its  rude  produce,  a very  small  part  of  the  manufactured  produce 
of  other  countries. 


OUR  EXPORTS  OF  FOOD  PRODUCTS. 


21 


We  submit  that  it  is  bad  policy  for  the  United  States  to  export 
immense  quantities  of  breadstuffs,  provisions,  and  other  raw  mate- 
rials that  will  be  bought  back , at  largely  enhanced  prices,  in  the 
shape  of  fabrics — that  it  is  bad  policy  to  export  bulky  articles  and 
import  condensed  or  finished  products,  thus  constantly  discriminat- 
ing against  ourselves  in  the  matter  of  freight  charges — that  it  is  bad 
policy  to  carry  on  a foreign  trade  which  involves  the  giving  of  much 
rude  produce  for  little  manufactured  produce.  Why,  then,  should 
we  expand  and  perpetuate  this  bad  policy  by  acts  of  legislation  ? If 
what  Mr.  Tucker  styles  “excessive  duties”  will  restrain  or  bar  this 
bad  policy,  we  have  a very  strong  reason  why  such  duties  should  be 
imposed.  Neither  individual  nor  national  economy  would  be  pro- 
moted by  a system  of  customs  laws  which  would  require  the  farmer 
to  declare,  “ In  the  coat  on  my  back  is  contained  some  of  the  wheat 
which  was  exported  last  year  from  my  farm  to  England.”  Protec- 
tion finally  enables  the  farmer  to  say,  on  the  contrary,  “ The  cloth 
in  this  coat  was  made  at  the  factory  you  see  over  yonder.  I raised 
the  wool  and  sold  it  to  the  manufacturer,  besides  which  I supplied 
to  him  and  his  workmen  all  the  breadstuffs  and  provisions  which 
they  consumed.”  Not  the  former  result,  but  the  latter,  meets  the 
views  of  wise  statesmanship,  and  requires  the  fostering  aid  of  Con- 
gress. 


The  Good  Old  Times. — There  is  a great  deal  of  nonsense  talked 
about  the  good  old  times.  Every  city,  town,  or  village  in  the  land 
has  its  croakers,  who  see  nothing  but  disaster  in  the  future,  hard 
times  in  the  present,  and  good  times  in  the  past.  The  Adrian  Times 
tells  of  one  of  these  complaining  individuals  who  was  growling  about 
the  present  low  price  of  wheat.  A well-known  Michigan  citizen 
gave  a little  of  his  experience  of  the  good  old  times  of  forty  years 
ago.  He  lived  where  Burr  Oak  now  stands,  and,  wanting  to  get* 
some  barrels  of  salt,  he  put  thirty  bushels  of  wheat  in  his  wagon 
and  started  for  Adrian,  eighty  miles  away.  As  he  could  not  get 
cash  there,  he  went  on  to  Palmyra  mills  and  sold  his  wheat  for  fifty 
cents  a bushel.  Going  back  to  Adrian,  he  paid  $3  for  two  barrels 
of  salt,  and  got  back  to  Burr  Oaks  after  being  five  days  gone,  being 
delayed  by  the  execrable  roads.  This  is  a fair  sample  of  the  good 
old  times,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  do  not  flatter  them- 
selves by  comparison  with  the  times  we  have  at  present. 


22 


BERKSHIRE  PIGS  FOR  IRON  PIGS. 


BERKSHIRE  PIGS  FOR  IRON  PIGS. 

(From  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean , August  15,  1878.) 

Were  logic  a person,  lie  would  be  liable  to  fall  into  a furious 
passion  on  reading  the  speech  by  Hon.  John  Randolph  Tucker  on 
the  tariff ; for  logic  teaches  that  experience  should  be  considered  in 
conducting  an  argument,  while  Mr.  Tucker,  whenever  it  suits  his 
purposes,  wholly  ignores  the  experimental  data  of  the  past.  Such 
was  his  mood  when  he  said  what  follows : 

Why  should  we  make  pig  iron  when  with  Berkshire  pigs  raised  upon  our 
farms  we  can  buy  more  iron  pigs  from  England  than  we  can  get  by  trying  to 
make  them  ourselves?  We  can  get  more  iron  pigs  from  England  for  Berk- 
shire pigs  than  we  can  from  the  Pennsylvania  manufacturers.  Why,  then, 
should  I not  be  permitted  to  send  there  for  them  ? Why  should  the  Penn- 
sylvania manufacturer  trouble  himself  to  go  into  a business  which  is  not 
profitable,  and  is  a losing  one,  merely  for  the  sake  of  selling  iron  pigs  at  a 
loss? 


The  Hon.  James  A.  Garfield  made  a brief  answer  to  part  of  the 
above  questions,  as  quoted  below : 

For  a single  season,  perhaps,  his  plan  might  be  profitable  to  the  consumers 
of  iron ; but  if  his  policy  were  adopted  as  a permanent  one  it  would  reduce 
us  to  a merely  agricultural  people,  whose  chief  business  would  be  to  produce 
the  simplest  raw  materials  by  the  least  skill  and  culture,  and  let  the  men  of 
brains  of  other  countries  do  our  thinking  for  us,  and  provide  for  us  all  prod- 
ucts requiring  the  cunning  hand  of  the  artisan,  while  we  would  be  compelled 
to  do  the  drudgery  for  ourselves  and  for  them. 

History  fully  corroborates  the  foregoing  statements.  Every  coun- 
try which  has  adopted  the  policy  of  exchanging  Berkshire  pigs  for 
iron  pigs — or,  in  other  words,  the  policy  of  exporting  raw  material 
and  importing  finished  products — has  begun  to  decline  in  wealth,  in 
prosperity,  and  in  national  power.  We  have  a forcible  illustration 
*of  this  at  home.  The  South  refused  to  cultivate  and  develop  manu- 
facturing industry,  because  she  believed  it  to  be  inimical  to  the 
safety  of  slavery.  As  a consequence  of  this  dependence  upon  ex- 
ternal sources  of  supply  for  almost  every  article  of  manufacture, 
that  section,  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion,  could  not  make 
railroad  bars  to  build  iron  tracks  needed  for  military  operations; 
could  not  replenish  the  worn-out  implements  of  agriculture;  could 
not  convert  into  cloth  the  teeming  abundance  of  cotton  grown  in 
her  fields ; could  not  even  produce  a friction  match  that  would  light 


BERKSHIRE  PIGS  FOR  IRON  PIGS. 


23 


one  in  twenty — in  brief,  could  not  utilize  her  natural  resources. 
During  the  war  the  South  possessed  an  almost  limitless  quantity  of 
iron — in  the  ore,  where  the  practice  of  free-trade  principles  had  left 
it — but,  without  furnaces,  without  forges,  without  foundries,  without 
machine-shops,  without  rolling-mills,  without  skilled  laborers,  that 
mineral  opulence  remained  a buried  treasure  throughout  the  entire 
struggle,  from  the  utter  impotency  of  any  general  effort  to  utilize  it. 
Then  the  few  manufacturing  establishments  which  had  come  into 
existence  against  all  obstacles  became  focal  points  of  Confederate 
solitude  and  sheltering  care.  Axes  and  spades,  locomotives,  plows 
and  hoes,  steam-engines  and  machinery  became  scarcer  and  scarcer. 
With  a rich  soil,  and  with  four  million  slaves  to  till  it,  even  food 
declined  in  quantity,  notwithstanding  that  the  area  devoted  to 
cotton  was  restricted  by  law  to  an  insignificant  number  of  acres. 
Salt  itself  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a luxury,  and  was  consumed  with 
sparing  frugality  by  all,  and  with  pinching  economy  by  many. 
What  a broad  contrast  this  condition  presents  to  that  in  the  N-orth, 
where  plenty  ran  riot,  and  where  the  people  had  struggled  success- 
fully against  the  policy  of  exchanging  Berkshire  pigs,  raised  in  the 
United  States,  for  iron  pigs  produced  in  England!  The  South  was 
rendered  weak  in  all  respects,  and  helpless  in  some,  because  of  her 
resolute  opposition  to  manufacturing  industry,  and  her  fixed  hostility 
to  protective  tariffs.  This  single  lamp  of  experience  should  be  suffi- 
cient to  guide  our  feet  in  the  future.  The  experimental  teachings  of 
exporting  Berkshire  pigs  to  pay  for  imported  iron  pigs  are  all 
averse  to  that  mode  of  conducting  international  exchanges.  Mr. 
Tucker,  as  a revenue  reformer,  is  unfortunately  a professor  of 
theoretics  in  that  supremely  theoretical  school  which  believes  in 
keeping  experience  at  arm’s-length,  through  fear  of  the  contamina- 
tion of  too  much  familiarity. 

He  asks,  with  a triumphant  tone,  “ Why  should  the  Pennsylvania 
manufacturer  trouble  himself  to  go  into  a business  which  is  not 
profitable,  and  is  a losing  one,  merely  for  the  sake  of  selling  iron 
pigs  at  a loss  ? ” He  does  not  go  into  the  business  merely  for  that 
sake.  Formerly  he  made  a profit.  Now  he  often  sells  at  a loss, 
just  as  the  maker  of  pig  iron  in  England  does;  and  continues  to 
make  and  sell  at  a loss  for  very  much  the  same  reasons  that  in- 
fluence the  Englishman  to  do  the  same — the  hope  of  returning  pros- 
perity, and  the  greater  loss  which  a full  stoppage  would  inflict. 
With  equal  force  we  might  apply  the  question  to  the  English  iron- 
master, and  ask  Mr.  Tucker  to  answer.  The  inquiry  fits  the  con- 


24 


BERKSHIRE  PIGS  FOR  IRON  PIGS. 


dition  of  the  Englishman  quite  as  fully  as  it  does  that  of  the  Ameri- 
can. If  it  possesses  logical  cogency  against  the  latter,  the  same 
does  it  possess  against  the  former.  Hard  times  have  victimized 
them  both. 

And  here  we  can  not  refrain  from  entering  our  solemn  and  em- 
phatic protest  against  the  whole  spirit  which  animates  that  policy 
of  legislation  so  magniloquently,  yet  so  mistakenly,  vaunted  as  tariff 
reform — that  presumptuous  spirit,  we  mean,  which  would  reduce 
civilization  to  a paltry  question  of  dollars  and  cents,  and  which 
practically  insists  that  virtue,  vice,  morality,  education,  misery, 
happiness,  freedom,  patriotism  must  be  expressed  in  mathematical 
formulas.  This  Gradgrind  school  of  political  economists,  hedged  in 
by  the  rules  of  arithmetic,  and  weighing  everything  in  the  scales  of 
an  avoirdupois  logic,  appears  to  see  in  the  existence  of  the  human 
race,  from  birth  to  death,  nothing  more  important  than  a bargain 
across  a counter,  it  having  been  clearly  ascertained  by  those  utili- 
tarian philosophers,  at  least  to  their  own  satisfaction,  that  the  whole 
duty  of  man — not  a part  of  man’s  duty,  but  the  whole — is  com- 
prised in  buying  cheap  foreign  manufactures,  despite  the  cost  in 
down-trodden  and  degraded  humanity  in  the  countries  of  produc- 
tion ; despite  the  misery  and  hunger-pinched  wretchedness  wreaked 
upon  the  foreign  laborer  by  the  process  of  securing  low  money 
price;  despite  the  ignorance  and  brutality  which  become  the  attend- 
ants upon  such  cheapness.  The  bargain-price  which  involves  hu- 
man degeneracy  and  human  suffering  is  always  exorbitantly  dear  in 
the  end. 


Labor  in  the  North  of  England. — Puddlers  who  earned 
seven  years  ago  above  £2  a week  on  an  average,  and  the  basis  of 
whose  wages  rose  largely  in  the  two  following  years,  could  not 
average  in  1876  more  than  £1  10s.  Last  year  it  was  contended 
that  the  earnings  did  not  average  £1  weekly;  and,  though  this  was 
probably  under  the  mark,  yet  there  has  been  a reduction  in  the 
basis  since,  which  with  short  work  will  certainly  make  the  average 
little  in  excess  of  half  of  what  it  was  in  1871,  while  there  is  still  a 
very  great  overplus  of  labor.  How  a subsistence  has  been  earned 
with  the  help  of  stone  breaking  for  the  unions,  field  labor  for  the 
farmers,  and  other  similar  methods,  need  not  be  told. — Pall  Mall 
Gazette. 


A PUZZLED  EDITOR  ANSWERED. 


25 


A PUZZLED  EDITOR  ANSWERED. 

To  the  Editors  of  the  Rock  Island  Union  : 

An  item  in  your  columns  of  the  16th  inst.,  speaking  of  our  caucus 
last  Saturday  night,  says  that  “ it  would  puzzle  the  author  ” of  the 
tariff  resolution  “ to  instance  a single  Moline  industry  that  is  benefit- 
ed by  a high  protective  tariff.”  I think  I can  throw  some  light  on 
the  puzzle  which  has  seemed  so  formidable  to  you,  and  present  here- 
with a few  figures  which  show  the  effect  of  a protective  tariff  on  the 
industries  of  the  country,  and,  therein,  of  Moline.  The  table  given 
below  is  a comparative  exhibit  of  the  population,  manufactures,  and 
wealth  of  the  country  during  the  two  periods  running  from  1850  to 
1860,  and  from  1860  to  1870  : 


1850. 

I860. 

1870. 

Population 

23,200,000 

800,000 

900,000 

$1,200,000,000 

$8,000,000,000 

31,450,000 

820,000 

1,200,000 

$1,885,000,000 

$14,000,000,000 

38,500,000 

1.900.000 

2.500.000 
$4,306,000,000 

$30,000,000,000 

Tron  production,  tons 

Iron  consumption,  tons 

Manufactures 

Wealth  of  country  (slaves  ex- 
cluded)   

During  the  first  period  we  had  no  protective  tariff,  or  practically 
none.  During  the  second  we  had  the  Morrill  tariff  of  1861.  Dur- 
ing the  first  period  our  population  increased  35  per  cent.,  and  our 
wealth  increased  66  per  cent.  During  the  second  period,  although 
our  population  increased  only  23 i per  cent.,  our  wealth  increased 
114  per  cent.  During  the  first  period  the  increase  of  our  manufac- 
tures, in  which  we  are  more  directly  interested,  barely  kept  pace  with 
our  increase  of  population.  During  the  second  period  our  manu- 
factures tripled  in  value.  During  the  first  period  the  iron  industry 
(the  most  important  industry  in  Moline)  increased  in  product  20,000 
tons,  or  2?  per  cent.  During  the  second  it  increased  in  product 
1,080,000  tons,  or  nearly  133  per  cent.  Remarkable  as  this  latter 
decade  was  for  the  destruction  of  wealth  and  paralyzation  of  industry 
in  a great  part  of  our  country  during  the  war,  the  resistant  or  pro- 
tective policy  made  it  even  more  remarkable  for  the  increase  of 
wealth  and  industrial  interests  and  the  development  of  resources. 
The  one  period  illustrates  the  free-trade,  the  other  the  protective 
policy.  I have  selected  only  a few  out  of  the  great  list  of  industries 
to  illustrate  the  difference,  and  have  chosen  those  which  are  most 
representative  of  Moline. 


26 


A PUZZLED  EDITOR  ANSWERED, 


How  do  these  figures  concern  the  industries  of  Moline  ? The  in- 
dustries of  Moline  are  a part  of  the  grand  total  here  represented,  but 
the  ratio  which  the  figures  of  the  one  period  for  Moline  bear  to  those 
of  the  other  is  a still  more  striking  example  of  the  benefits  of  pro- 
tection. We  have  no  need  to  consult  government  reports  to  see  the 
difference  in  Moline.  During  the  second  decade  our  industries  have 
grown  from  local  to  national  importance.  It  was  the  high  tariff  of 
1861  that  made  the  marvelous  development  of  our  implement  busi- 
ness possible.  The  direct  operation  of  the  tariff  has  been  to  keep 
British  implements  and  commodities  out  of  our  market,  and  leave 
the  home  markets  free  for  our  goods ; and  the  existing  tariff  has  sus- 
tained our  industries  and  assisted  their  growth  since  the  panic  of 
1873.  Without  the  protection  of  the  tariff  the  Moline  iron  works 
and  plow  factories,  so  far  as  we  had  any  iron  works  and  plow  facto- 
ries, would  have  been  working  British  iron  and  steel.  Just  here  I 
may  remark  that  the  three  greatest  financial  and  industrial  panics 
that  have  happened  in  our  history  are  those  of  1817, 1837,  and  1857  ; 
that  they  were  each,  respectively,  preceded  by  a low  tariff  or  free 
trade,  and  the  means  which  restored  prosperity  in -each  case  was  a 
protective  tariff. 

No  branch  of  American  industry  shows  the  effect  of  the  protective 
tariff  more  forcibly  than  that  of  paper-making.  In  1862  the  rav- 
ages of  the  war  in  the  cotton  States  diminished  the  production  of 
cotton,  then  the  principal  paper  stock,  to  such  an  extent  that  paper- 
makers  could  hardly  obtain  raw  material  for  their  trade,  and  paper 
rapidly  advanced  from  nine  and  ten  cents  per  pound  to  eighteen  and 
twenty  and  twenty -six  cents  per  pound.  These  figures  are  not  taken 
from  any  merely  local  price-list,  but  from  the  prices  current  of  the 
country.  At  that  time  there  was  a duty  of  20  per  cent,  on  imported 
paper.  Great  efforts  were  made  to  have  this  duty  repealed,  and  let 
in  the  foreign  paper,  but  the  Republican  party  in  Congress  stood 
firm,  and  the  duty  was  retained.  The  result  was  that  the  demand 
for  paper  caused  new  mills  to  spring  up  all  over  the  country ; in- 
creased the  business  of  the  old  ones ; led  to  the  introduction  of  new 
materials  in  the  making  of  paper,  which  cheapened  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction ; and,  finally,  gave  us  a home  industry  in  the  production  of 
paper,  which  can  compete  with  the  paper-makers  of  the  world. 
These  facts  are  well  known  to  the  men  who  handled  paper  during 
the  war,  and  to  students  of  political  economy  generally  who  have  in- 
vestigated the  paper  trade.  Merritt  Starr. 

Moltne,  Illinois,  June  18. 


HOW  PROTECTION  BENEFITS  AGRICULTURE. 


27 


There  is  a great  deal  of  talk  of  the  projected  “ commercial  alli- 
ance” between  France  and  the  United  States,  of  which  M.  Leon 
Chotteau,  lately  in  this  country,  is  the  representative  spokesman. 
The  “commercial  alliance,”  as  well  as  we  can  make  it  out,  means 
a more  liberal  purchase  of  French  goods  on  the  part  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  although  it  is  put  in  the  reverse  form  by  its 
polite  French  champions.  They  desire,  so  they  say,  that  their 
countrymen  shall  buy  more  American  goods.  Why  they  do  not 
carry  their  desire  into  effect  it  is  not  easy  to  see.  Certainly  it  is 
not  because  the  Americans  do  not  make  very  liberal  purchases  from 
France. — Boston  Commercial  Bulletin. 


HOW  PROTECTION  BENEFITS  AGRICULTURE. 

(From  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean , July  9, 1878.) 

Benefit  accrues  through  a series  of  advancing  and  cumulative 
influences,  as  follows : 

1.  By  multiplying  the  mechanic  arts,  so  that  the  people  employed 
therein  become  regular  and  liberal  consumers  of  food,  without  com- 
peting in  its  production,  thus  enlarging  the  farmer’s  home  market. 

2.  By  reducing  the  distance  between  producer  and  consumer,  with 
the  effect  of  diminishing  the  cost  of  transportation  between  the 
two ; dispensing  with'  a portion  of  the  former  middlemen,  and  in- 
creasing the  number  of  exchanges. 

3.  By  diversifying  agriculture  and  providing  for  a rotation  of 
crops,  since  the  farmer  who  depends  on  exportation  is  limited  con- 
stantly to  the  few  growths  for  which  there  is  a foreign  demand, 
whereas  the  domestic  requirement  is  both  steadier  and  more  varied. 

4.  By  relieving  the  perplexities  and  evils  of  a slavish  reliance 
upon  the  foreign  market ; for  the  quantities  taken  abroad,  from  year 
to  year,  are  so  uncertain  and  changeable  as  to  frustrate  every  at- 
tempt made,  at  the  date  of  sowing  the  crop,  to  estimate  and  to  an- 
ticipate the  amount  that  will  be  wanted,  so  that  there  is  quite  as 
great  liability  to  produce  too  much  as  too  little ; but  the  home  con- 
sumption can  be  reasonably  estimated. 

5.  By  establishing  a multitude  of  manufacturing  centres,  from 
which  goes  forth  for  miles  around  a profitable  demand  for  those 
minor  crops,  such  as  pumpkins,  turnips,  melons,  and  the  like,  which 
the  earth  produces  by  the  ton,  while  it  yields  the  cereals -by  the 
bushel,  yet  which  will  not  bear  the  expense  of  a long  transporta- 
tion. 


28 


HOW  PROTECTION  BENEFITS  AGRICULTURE. 


6.  By  retaining  in  the  country  and  near  the  field  an  increasing 
proportion  of  the  waste  of  agricultural  consumption,  thereby  ena- 
bling the  farmer  to  return  to  the  soil,  in  the  shape  of  manure,  the 
fertilizing  constituents  withdrawn  by  the  processes  of  vegetation, 
and  preventing  the  exhaustion  of  the  land. 

7.  By  more  and  more  promoting  the  division  of  agriculture  into 
distinct  branches,  as  sheep  husbandry,  the  raising  of  flax  for  fibre 
and  seed,  fruit  orchards,  vegetable  gardens,  dairies,  cheese  factories, 
bee  culture,  and  the  like,  with  the  result  of  reducing  agricultural 
competition. 

8.  By  improving  and  multiplying  roads,  bridges,  and  ferries,  and 
by  cheapening  all  the  facilities  of  transportation,  in  consequence  of 
the  rapid  growth  and  larger  needs  of  internal  commerce. 

9.  By  augmenting  the  value  of  land  and  the  prices  of  agricul- 
tural produce,  through  the  greatly  increased  demand  for  both. 

10.  By  expanding  the  supply,  improving  the  quality,  and  dimin- 
ishing the  prices  of  manufactured  articles,  through  the  multiplica- 
tion of  manufacturers  and  the  growing  competition  among  them  for 
the  sale  of  their  products  in  the  same  markets. 

11.  By  stimulating  the  inventive  genius  of  our  countrymen  to  de- 
vise many  labor-saving  machines  and  better  implements,  whereby 
much  of  the  former  drudgery  of  farm  labor  is  transferred  to  mus- 
cles of  wood  and  metal,  the  power  of  tilling  the  land  is  vastly 
enhanced,  and  the  cost  of  agricultural  production  is  wonderfully 
decreased. 

12.  By  ultimately  bringing  the  manufacturer  to  the  side  of  the 
farmer  and  the  planter  everywhere,  thus  destroying  the  onerous  tax 
of  transportation,  and  abolishing  the  intervention  of  supernumerary 
and  expensive  middlemen,  as  the  effects  of  direct  exchanges — an 
increasing  tendency  towards  which  result  is  now  seen  in  the  growth 
of  manufacturing  establishments  in  the  rural  districts  of  the  West, 
and  in  the  progressive  erection  of  cotton-mills  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  cotton-fields  of  the  South.  And, 

13.  By  finally  transforming  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  from  an 
ignorant  waste  of  the  fertilizing  elements  into  a scientific  agricul- 
ture, whereupon  it  enters  upon  a boundless  and  permanent  career  of 
prosperity. 

The  more  frequently  that  tariff  protection  is  weakened,  the  oftener 
will  these  effects  be  interrupted;  the  more  completely  that  tariff 
protection  is  withdrawn,  the  more  widely  will  these  effects  be  ar- 
rested, turned  back,  and  destroyed;  the  more  thoroughly  and 


VAST  INCREASE  IN  OUR  INTERNAL  COMMERCE. 


29 


steadily  that  tariff  protection  is  bestowed,  the  more  actively  and 
fruitfully  will  these  effects  come  into  existence,  and  the  more  per- 
manent will  they  be. 


VAST  INCREASE  IN  OUR  INTERNAL  COMMERCE. 

The  following  is  extracted  from  a letter  addressed  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  on  the  14th  of  September,  by  Hon.  Joseph 
Nimmo,  Jr.,  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  in  reply  to  a 
letter  from  the  Secretary,  requesting,  among  other  matters,  informa- 
tion concerning  the  condition  of  our  internal  commerce  during  the 
last  five  years  and  at  the  present  time,  and  the  relative  value  of  our 
internal  and  foreign  commerce. 

The  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  with  its  western  extension,  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort 
Wayne  and  Chicago  Railway,  and  the  New  York  Central  Railroad,  with  its 
principal  western  connection,  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern  Rail- 
way, constitute  the  two  most  important  avenues  of  internal  commerce  in  this 
country.  The  traffic  over  them  may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  a fair  index  of 
the  general  condition  of  our  internal  trade.  The  statistics  of  this  traffic  are 
presented  as  follows : 


YEAR. 

Lake  Shore  and 
Michigan  Southern 
Railway. 

New  York 
Central  Railroad. 

Pittsburgh, 

Fort  Wayne  and 
Chicago  Railway. 

Pennsylvania 

Railroad. 

Tons  carried. 

Tons  carried. 

Tons  carried. 

Tons  carried. 

1873.. . 

1874.. . 

1875.. . 

1876.. . 

1877.. . 

5,176,661 

5,221,267 

5,022,490 

5,635,167 

5,513,398 

6,114,678 

6,001,954 

6,803,680 

6,351,356 

2,316,568 

2,299,120 

2,496,148 

2,629,607 

2,690,735 

9,998,794 

9,118,419 

9,787,176 

10,600,547 

10,438,394 

The  traffic  on  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern  Railway  increased  6J 
per  cent,  from  1873  to  1877 ; the  traffic  on  the  New  York  Central  Railroad 
increased  nearly  4 per  cent,  from  1874  to  1877  ; (this  comparison  could  not  be 
made  from  1873,  for  the  reason  that  after  that  year  the  tonnage  movement  on 
another  important  road  was  added ;)  the  traffic  of  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne 
and  Chicago  Railway  showed  an  increase  of  16  per  cent. ; and  the  traffic  on 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  showed  an  increase  of  4J  per  cent.  It  appears 
that  the  total  traffic  on  the  four  roads  showed  an  increase  of  10  per  cent,  from 
1874  to  1878. 

I have  no  statistical  information  in  regard  to  the  traffic  of  these  railroads 
during  the  current  year.  The  following  statements  made  by  Mr.  Vanderbilt, 
president  of  the  New  York  Central  Railroad  Company,  and  by  Mr.  Thomas 
A.  Scott,  president  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  on  the  26th  of 


VAST  INCREASE  IN  OUR  INTERNAL  COMMERCE. 


30 


August,  after  the  adjournment  of  the  recent  railroad  conference  at  Saratoga, 
are,  however,  of  interest  in  this  connection. 

Mr.  Vanderbilt  is  reported  to  have  said: — “In  my  opinion  there  will  be 
•sufficient  business  during  the  next  six  months  for  all  the  railroads  and  the 
Erie  Canal.  The  lines  cannot  now  supply  cars  enough  for  the  demands  upon 
them.  This  week  I have  contracted  for  eight  hundred  new  cars.  The  Erie, 
I am  informed,  has  ordered  2,000,  and  many  other  lines  are  finding  it  neces- 
sary to  increase  their  rolling  stock.”  Mr.  Scott  is  reported  to  have  said : — 
“The  railroads  are  now  very  actively  employed,  and  the  number  of  cars  is  not 
■great  enough  to  move  the  freight  offered  as  promptly  as  is  desired.  I believe 
there  will  be  a steady  improvement  in  nearly  all  branches  of  trade  and 
industry.  The  prospects  of  the  leading  railroad  lines  of  the  country  are  now 
good.” 

The  traffic  movements  over  other  important  trunk  lines  also  serve  to  indicate 
the  general  condition  of  the  internal  commerce  of  the  country.  The  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Railroad  Company  state  only  the  number  of  through  tons  of 
merchandise  from  Baltimore  to  the  Ohio  river,  and  from  the  Ohio  river  to 
Baltimore.  Although  not  comparable  with  the  tonnage  statistics  of  the  other 
roads,  they  serve  to  illustrate  the  condition  of  our  internal  commerce.  The 
tonnage  was  as  follows:  1873,  640,265  tons;  1874,  752,256  tons;  1875,  872,101 
tons;  1876,  1,093,393  tons;  1877,  1,047,645  tons.  Comparing  1873  with  1877, 
we  find  an  increase  of  63^  per  cent. 

The  secretary  of  the  Baltimore  Board  of  Trade,  in  a letter  dated  September 
9th,  1878,  states  that  “he  would  estimate  the  increased  tonnage  of  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Railroad,  for  the  year  1878,  over  the  year  ending  September 
30th,  1877,  as  much  as  20  to  25  per  cent.,  in  grain  and  flour.” 

The  freight  traffic  over  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  each  year  from  1873  to 
1877  was  as  follows:  1873,  487,484  tons;  1874,  482,806  tons;  1875,  501,410 
.tons;  1876,  629,947  tons  ; 1877,  716,112  tons.  There  appears  to  have  been  an 
increase  in  the  traffic  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  of  47  per  cent,  since  the 
year  1873. 

The  freight  traffic  of  the  great  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railway,  embra- 
cing 2,037  miles  of  road,  was,  during  the  last  four  years,  ending  May  31st,  as 
follows:  1875,  3,153,315  tons;  1876,  3,471,927  tons;  1877,  3,413,398  tons; 
1878,  3,911,261  tons.  From  1875  to  1878  the  traffic  over  the  lines  of  this 
company  increased  24  per  cent.  The  average  freight  rates  on  this  road  fell 
from  2t17  cents  per  ton  per  mile  in  1875  to  ljjfo  cents  per  ton  per  mile  in 
1878 — a decrease  of  18  per  cent. 

The  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  Railroad  Company  operates  1,003 
miles  of  road.  The  traffic  over  the  lines  of  this  company  during  the  last  five 
years  appears  to  have  been  as  follows:  1873,  1,286,966  tons;  1874,  1,399,384 
tons;  1875,  1,117,727  tons;  1876,  1,640,000  tons;  1877,  1,651,408  tons.  The 
tonnage  carried  on  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific  Railroad  showed  an 
increase  of  28  per  cent,  from  1873  to  1877. 

To  the  foregoing  I would  add  the  recent  and  valuable  statistics  of  the  total 
grain  receipts  at  seaports,  just  published  by  the  New  York  Produce  Exchange  : 
Year  ending  August  31st,  1875,  170,823,767  bushels;  1876,  208,752,462  bush- 
els; 1877,181,791,038  bushels;  1878,  286,633,261  bushels.  The  receipts  at 


VAST  INCREASE  IN  OUR  INTERNAL  COMMERCE. 


31 


seaports  during  the  year  ending  August  31st,  1878,  were  seventy  per  cent, 
greater  than  those  of  1875,  and  the  largest  in  the  history  of  the  country. 

The  ports  above  referred  to  are  Montreal,  Portland,  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  New  Orleans. 

Your  second  inquiry  relates  to  the  relative  value  of  the  internal  and  the 
foreign  commerce  of  the  United  States.  No  statistical  return  is  made  regu- 
larly by  any  railroad  in  this  country  as  to  the  value  of  commodities  trans- 
ported. I am  able  to  present  information  of  this  character  with  respect  to  but 
one  railroad,  and  that  only  for  a single  year.  An  officer  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  Company  made  such  a computation  for  this  Bureau  a few  months 
ago,  and  as  the  result  of  great  care  and  labor  ascertained  that  the  total  value 
of  the  freight  traffic  over  that  road,  during  the  year  1876,  amounted  to  $560,- 
942,158 — a sum  exceeding  the  value  of  the  imports  into  the  United  States 
from  foreign  countries  during  any  year  since  1874.  The  above  valuation  does 
not  include  the  express  business,  amounting  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  to 
about  thirty  tons  daily,  and  composed  largely  of  merchandise.  A ton  of  ex- 
press goods  many  times  exceeds  in  value  the  average  value  of  a ton  of 
ordinary  freights.  I believe  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  commerce  over  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  its  western  extension,  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne 
and  Chicago  Railway,  and  over  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River 
Railroad  and  its  western  connection,  the  Lake  Shore  and  Michigan  Southern 
Railway,  without  counting  any  commodity  more  than  once,  considerably  ex- 
ceeds in  value  the  entire  foreign  commerce  of  the  United  States,  imports  and 
exports  combined. 

It  was  stated  a year  ago,  in  the  first  annual  report  on  internal  commerce,  as 
the  result  of  a careful  estimate,  that  the  value  of  the  commerce  of  the  United 
States  on  railroads  is  about  sixteen  times  the  value  of  our  foreign  commerce. 


Importations  of  foreign  raw  copper  into  the  United  States  ap- 
pear to  have  ceased,  as  our  country  produces  immense  quantities  of 
copper  from  the  native  mines.  We  are  also  exporters  of  the  metal, 
and  the  shipments  promise  to  become  quite  extensive.  Yet  it  is 
sometimes  a source  of  lamentation  by  free  traders  that  we  do  not 
stimulate  the  importation  of  foreign  copper.  Why  should  we  ? 


Production  and  distribution  are  the  agencies  by  which  human 
wants  are  supplied,  and  a nation  increases  in  wealth  in  the  ratio 
that  the  sum  of  its  productions  exceeds  that  of  its  consumption. 
The  paramount  object  to  be  kept  in  view  in  shaping  our  commercial 
policy  should  be  to  develop  in  the  nation  its  maximum  power  of 
production. — Samuel  Harris. 


32 


PROTECTION  WINS  IN  CANADA. 


Canada  for  Protection. — The  result  of  the  general  election 
in  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  on  the  17th  of  September,  is  thus 
commented  on  by  the  New  York  Tribune : 

The  defeat  of  the  Canadian  government  is  complete.  After  a vigorous 
campaign,  in  which  free  trade  and  protection  were  the  leading  issues,  it  is 
placed  in  a hopeless  minority  of  70,  with  three  of  its  ministers  unseated. 
Since  it  came  into  power  in  1873  it  has  commanded  substantial  majorities, 
and  resisted  energetically  the  efforts  of  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  to  alter  the  tariff 
in  the  interests  of  domestic  industry.  But  hard  times  have  made  the  Cana- 
dians reflective,  and  led  them  to  declare  for  measures  designed  to  encourage 
manufactures  and  provide  a home  market  for  the  products  of  the  field.  They 
have  not  been  swayed  by  large  manufacturers,  sometimes  called  “ bloated 
monopolists,”  for  there  are  few  such  in  Canada,  but  have  been  guided  by  the 
broad,  liberal  purpose  to  promote  the  public  good  by  stimulating  new  indus- 
tries, and  encouraging  those  which  already  exist.  They  have  given  free  trade 
a fair  trial,  and  although  they  have  been  flooded  with  quotations  from  Bastiat, 
and  stories  of  American  poverty,  they  have  resolved  to  have  no  more  of  it. 
Mr.  Mackenzie  will,  of  course,  retire  promptly  from  the  premiership  and  be 
succeeded  by  the  Conservative  leader,  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  who  was  de- 
feated at  Kingston,  but  may  readily  secure  a seat  elsewhere.  Sir  John  is  the 
experienced  statesman  who  promoted  Confederation,  acted  as  premier  from 
1867  to  1873,  and  represented  Canada  in  the  negotiations  which  resulted  in 
the  Treaty  of  Washington.  He  enjoys  the  confidence  of  Gold  win  Smith,  who 
gave  him  an  independent  support  during  the  recent  campaign.  He  is  a strong 
protectionist,  and  placing  Canada  first,  is,  of  course,  disposed  to  defend  her 
industries  from  American  as  well  as  British  competition.  But  in  his  desire 
to  expand  and  diversify  Canadian  industries  he  is  on  the  road  which  leads  to 
a customs  union,  if  not  to  actual  annexation.  Meanwhile,  Canada,  rendered 
prosperous  by  protection,  will  be  a better  customer  of  ours  than  she  ever  could 
be  under  free  trade. 


